Every runner who trains on a regular basis should know these basic rules in order to make progress in the world of athletics
Everyone knows how to run and is capable of putting on a pair of running shoes and going out for a few minutes jogging, but not all of us are qualified or have the necessary knowledge to program a training routine, that will allow us to achieve our goals, whether they are to run a marathon or simply to get in shape. It is therefore necessary to know the basic rules that allow us to progress in our training without getting injured.
Here are the basic rules you should know if you are a runner and train regularly.
1. Less asphalt, more soil
It is one of the basic but most unknown principles that you should nevertheless try to observe and plan your training so that at least 80% of your training is done on dirt tracks. Asphalt is a very hard and injurious surface. Although you may not notice it at first, if you run an average of 50 to 100 km, which is what most runners do, you will end up injuring yourself. Your joints hit the asphalt with each stride, supporting a weight 10 times of your own. Thus, if you weigh 150 pounds, your knees will be supporting the equivalent of 1500 pounds with each stride.
2. Change your shoes
There is another factor, perhaps the most important one, which is to always wear good shoes. It is really the only element that we have to take care of and preserve to protect us from injuries: Good shoes with adequate cushioning to protect the joints from the mileage we accumulate on a weekly basis. It is necessary to know whether your stride is neutral, pronator or supinator. That is to say, how we support the foot when we step, if we incline it outwards or inwards and, consequently, to use shoes that correct this inclination to avoid serious injuries in the medium and long term.
The estimated life of a shoe is approximately 800 kilometers, after which it loses its properties.
In addition, it is convenient to know that shoes have a certain life after which it is necessary to replace them with new ones. Their estimated life is approximately 800 kilometers, after which they lose their properties and your muscles and joints will be unprotected against the harshness of training.
3. Pleasant shootings
No, it does not mean that they have to have a good time while training, but the way they should train. That is to say, the runs should be done at a comfortable pace, allowing us to talk to the rest of our training partners. The best way to run is to run at a pace lower than our marathon pace; 45 seconds slower than our kilometer pace in the main event can be a reference.
4. The specific
In any type of training it is important not to allow the body to get used to the exercises to which we submit it, because when this happens, it stops progressing. For this reason, and because we must train ourselves to withstand different types of effort, it is essential to vary the type of training.
Quality training should always be done on alternate days, never on consecutive days.
Although it is best to put yourself in the hands of a coach to plan your routine, a workout should include the following:
Tempo runs: Calm pace (45 seconds slower than marathon pace) Long run: 80 to 110 minutes maximum.
Short and long series: To be faster and stronger. Short series from 300 to 500M; and long series from 1K to 3K.
Intervals: This is one of the highest quality workouts. Alternate fast minutes at 10k pace with slower ones 1 minute slower than the marathon.
Short and long hills: They give you that point of strength that is always needed to finish a race.
Running technique: With the correction of our running technique with specific exercises, you will be able to cut seconds off your goals easily, because you will run more efficiently.
5. Alternate days
When we are inoculated with the poison of running, we need to run more and more. We suffer a phenomenon whereby as we feel better, we increase the mileage, intensity and days of training. In any case, we must observe certain rules that preserve us from injuries and, therefore, allow us to continue progressing. For this reason, quality training should always be done on alternate days, never on consecutive days.
6. Rest
Rest is as important as training. Our muscles need to recover. The older we get, the more we need to rest; if we don’t, our muscles will suffer and we will stop from progressing. After each race or competition we should rest and if it is a marathon, do it for 15 days.
7. The 10%
This is the rule that should take over our weekly mileage progression. That is, when we start running, we should increase our weekly mileage only 10% during four-week cycles. When we complete the four weeks we should reduce the mileage by 20% and increase it again at a rate of 10%, and so on until we reach our target mileage, which in the case of a popular runner should not exceed 100 per week.
8. 5 +5
These are the minimum times in which we must prepare our musculature and our organism to run and return to calm. Thus, it is important to run slowly for a minimum of five minutes at a slow pace to warm up our muscles and jog another five minutes to cool down and return to calm, eliminating the lactic acid accumulated in our legs.
9. Complementary workouts
Running is everything for a runner. The body asks us to accumulate kilometers without further ado, but there is a maxim and it is that at the end of a competition we always suffer because our legs do not give us more. It is a question of strength that we must correct by doing complementary exercises, either with weights, rubber bands or crossfit training.
10. Test your running speed
If we want to run a race at a certain pace, we have to get used to it. We must emulate those competition paces and even slightly higher ones during training over shorter distances.
